Nytimes.com | By Carlotta Gall

ISTANBUL — Public schools are closing, on little or no notice, and being replaced by religious schools. Exams are scrapped by presidential whim. Tens of thousands of public teachers have been fired. Outside religious groups are teaching in schools, without parental consent.

Hdp.org.tr

The election speech of our Presidential candidate Mr. Selahattin Demirtaş was aired on the TRT News channel. The English translation of the speech as follows:

Economist.com

Selahattin Demirtas says the election is between "democracy and a dictatorship”

Dear friends, "Exile Voices" photographs by Syrian and Yazidi children from two camps in Iraqi Kurdistan will be exhibited in the Malta Arts Festival, along with photographs of Reza and Maltese photographers Charles Mifsud and Darrin Zammit Lupi.

We will hope to see many of you there in support of our students and the activities of Reza Visual Academy.

Kurdistan24.net

ERBIL – Turkish authorities recently banned nine translated books of various scholarly subjects about the Kurds, the owner of an Istanbul-based publishing house that released them told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday.

REUTERS | By Dmitry Zhdannikov | MAY 25, 2018

ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Russian state oil major Rosneft signed a deal to help Kurdistan develop its gas reserves and build a gas pipeline, expanding the company’s dominance in the energy sector of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region. 

Nytimes.com | By Soner CAGAPTAY

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has called for snap elections on June 24, almost a year and a half before the scheduled date in November 2019. He is expected to win because he has, once again, managed to stack the odds — militant nationalism, strong economic growth, a post-coup state of emergency that allows him to deploy security forces to crush his opposition and almost complete control of the Turkish media — in his favor.

Al-monitor.com | Amberin Zaman (Turkey Pulse)

The limits of Turkey’s balancing act in Syria are being exposed as the prospects of a military confrontation between the United States and Russia over Syria continue to grow.